MTLE Partner Supported Practice

PLACE (Program for Licensing Assessments for Colorado Educators)

Reading Specialist

PLACE1. Which of the following activities is likely to be the most

effective in helping emergent readers develop an awareness of the various functions and conventions of reading and writing?

A. Having individual students regularly dictate messages and stories to the teacher for the teacher to transcribe and read back to them.

A. Teaching students the names of different genres and asking them to identify the genres of texts read to them by the teacher.

A. Creating name cards for objects in the classroom (e.g., chair, desk, chalkboard) and posting the cards prominently around the room.

A. Encouraging students to learn how to write their own names.

1 out of 10

PLACE2. Five-year-old Michelle says the following sentence as she is

dictating a story to her teacher.The elephant eated up all the peanuts.

In a language-experience approach to reading instruction, it would be most appropriate for the teacher to respond to Michelle’s sentence in which of the following ways?

A. Writing Michelle’s sentence using correct grammar and reading it back to her.

A. Reading the sentence aloud and asking Michelle to try to correct her error.

A. Taking advantage of the situation to teach Michelle a mini-lesson about verb tense.

A. Writing the sentence exactly as Michelle dictated it.

2 out of 10

PLACE3. Appropriate teacher behaviors during an oral diagnostic test include

which of the following?I. Recording student miscuesII. Assessing comprehensionIII. Providing initial phonemesIV. Supplying omitted words

A. I only

A. II, III, and IV only

A. I and II only

A. I, II, III, and IV

3 out of 10

PLACE4. The major reason that students with reading disabilities become

increasingly at risk of falling behind their peers academically is that, over time, such students generally tend to:

A. Limit their reading to high-interest materials such as a young adult fiction.

A. Avoid reading whenever possible.

A. Receive less instruction in specific reading skills such as decoding.

A. Develop a smaller experiential base.

4 out of 10

PLACE5. When administering an IRI (informal reading inventory) to a

student to diagnose possible reading difficulties, it is important to begin by:

A. Selecting passages with which the student is familiar for the oral and silent reading portions of the IRI.

A. Assessing the appropriate level of reading material at which to begin testing.

A. Reviewing with the student his or her sight-word vocabulary and decoding strategies.

A. Previewing with the student the materials and passages that will be included in the IRI.

5 out of 10

PLACE6. One of MS. Eskin’s entering second graders speaks with a

strong regional dialect. Ms. Eskin’s best adaptation of reading instruction for this student would be to:

A. Initiate speech training to help the student learn to pronounce words as the other students do.

A. Focus initially on teaching the student decoding strategies based on phonetic principles.

A. Provide the student with reading material that is written in a style representative of her dialect.

A. Monitor the student’s reading to ensure that her dialect does not interfere with her comprehension.

6 out of 10

PLACE7. An elementary reading teacher would like to promote more active

involvement by families in their children’s reading development. Which of the following plans would best help achieve this goal?

A. Having students prepare informal book talks about their favorite books, which they can present to their families at home.

A. Updating parents and guardians on their children’s progress through regularly scheduled conferences.

A. Allowing students to take favorite books home from school and encouraging families to share these books with their children.

A. Having students create ongoing lists of the books they read and take their lists home to show their families every few months.

7 out of 10

PLACE8. The most important factor to consider when selecting

remedial reading materials at the secondary level is whether or not the materials are:

A. Vocabulary enriching.

A. At grade level.

A. Related to a specific content area.

A. Of high interest to students.

8 out of 10

PLACE9. A reading specialist serves on a committee evaluating reading

programs in the district’s elementary schools. Other members of the committee include administrators, classroom teachers, and library and technology personnel. Of the following, the most appropriate role for the reading specialist would be to:

A. Help committee members understand and interpret the results of reading assessments.

A. Ensure that committee members are aware of the limited resources available for reading instruction.

A. Explain to committee members the rationales supporting different methods of reading instruction.

A. Familiarize committee members with legal requirements relating to reading instruction and assessment.

9 out of 10

PLACE10. Which of the following actions would best help a reading

professional stay informed about current research on effective methods of reading instruction?

A. Become actively involved in a professional organization such as the International Reading Association.

A. Observe experienced reading teachers as the provide individual, small-group, and whole class instruction.

A. Participate in a mentoring program in which a less experienced reading professional is paired with a more experienced partner.

A. Regularly visit the Internet websites of state education agencies and the United States Department of Education.

10 out of 10

STOP PLACE PRACTICE ASSESSMENT

MTLE Independent, Timed Practice

MTLE Reading Teacher (Grades K-12) Subtest 1 and 2 Sample Items

Subtest 1 MTLE1. A teacher would like to use small-group differentiated instruction to

provide students with guided practice in applying recently taught prosodic reading skills. Which of the following guidelines would be most appropriate to use when planning the composition of small groups arranged for this purpose?

A. Including in each group students with a range of reading skill levels.

A. Using students’ areas of interest to determine the texts and the student makeup of the groups.

A. Changing the student makeup of the groups from lesson to lesson.

A. Ensuring that the students in each of the groups have the same instructional reading level.

1 out of 8

Subtest 1 MTLE (#3)

2. Which of the following questions would be most important to answer first when determining a particular formal reading test, administered annually to students districtwide, would provide useful information about the adequate yearly progress (AYP) of students in district schools?

A. Can the schools ensure that testing conditions will be the same for all examinees in the district?

A. Are the skills and knowledge measured by the test aligned with state and district curricular goals in reading?

A. Can school faculty readily access individual test scores to inform ongoing differentiated instruction?

A. Are the norms used for scoring the test based on test administrations in demographically comparable school districts?

2 out of 8

Subtest 1 MTLE (#5)

3. A high school reading teacher is helping a social studies teacher plan instruction in strategic reading to promote students’ comprehension of content-area texts. When helping the teacher develop a lesson focused on a specific text, which of the following steps would be most effective for the reading teacher to take first?

A. Determining the teacher’s learning goals for the reading assignment.

A. Identifying the approximate reading difficulty of the specific text.

A. Surveying the reading assignment for content-specific vocabulary.

A. Obtaining assessment data about the reading skills of class members

3 out of 8

Subtest 2 MTLE (#1)

4. In a research-based systematic phonics approach to beginning reading instruction, students are taught how to sound out and blend the sounds of letters to form words at which of the following points in the sequence of instruction?

A. As soon as they have mastered the most common letter-sound correspondences for a small number of useful letters.

A. When they can name most letters in the alphabet and write their first names using both upper-and lowercase letters appropriately.

A. As soon as they are able to demonstrate mastery of the first 15 words from a list of the most frequently appearing words in texts.

A. When they demonstrate knowledge and skills in fundamental print concepts, including letter formation skills.

4 out of 8

Subtest 2 MTLE (#2)

5. Daily independent reading in a range of genres benefits students’ academic success primarily by:

A. Promoting their metacognitive awareness.

A. Facilitating their use of comprehension strategies.

A. Expanding and improving their phonics skills.

A. Enriching their vocabulary and background knowledge.

5 out of 8

Subtest 2 MTLE (#3)

6. Which of the following reading response skills relies on the reader’s evaluative comprehension of a fictional text?

A. Describing a story’s setting and characters.

A. Recalling the sequence of important events in a story.

A. Discussing the credibility of a story’s ending.

A. Using mental imagery to understand descriptive passages in a story.

6 out of 8

Subtest 2 MTLE (#4)

7. A reading teacher wants to enhance students’ understanding of a variety of traditional literary genres. In one lesson, the teacher plans an activity in which students will collaboratively write an original fable based on a plot summary provided by the teacher. Which of the following plot summaries would be most appropriate for this purpose?

A. A lazy lion tricks her prey into wearing a coat of bold stripes, only to discover that stripes provide the animal protective camouflage.

A. A penniless young farmer completes a series of extraordinary tasks, proving himself worthy of a beautiful princess.

A. A mountain climber thinks she has rescued an injured hiker, then learns the hiker disappeared on the mountain a hundred years earlier.

A. A house cat and three mice form an unlikely alliance, joining forces to save the family home from being demolished.

7 out of 8

Subtest 2 MTLE (#5)

8. After completing content-area reading assignments, a high school student is able to identify several isolated ideas and details from reading, but demonstrates significant difficulty summarizing how the ideas or details relate to one another. Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for addressing this student’s demonstrated needs?

A. Explicitly teaching a range of questions-and-answer relationships.

A. Providing direct instruction in expository text structures.

A. Regularly providing practice in making personal responses to texts.

A. Reviewing definitions of content-specific vocabulary after reading.

8 out of 8

STOP MTLE INDEPENDENT PRACTICE ASSESSMENT